Olivia DrakeNorm Shapiro, professor of romance languages and literatures, was decorated as Officier de Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Minister of Culture and Communication in France on April 23. France has a long history of official government distinctions for exceptional achievement. The "Order of Arts and Letters" was established in 1957 to recognize eminent artists, writers and people who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world. Shapiro is the author of dozens of books on French culture, literature and poetry. Many are award-winning. The Order of Arts and Letters is given out twice annually to…
Q: Sarah, you received a Guggenheim Fellowship to translate the Greek tragedy trilogy, The Oresteia. Please explain the cultural significance of this particular historical play and why your translation will differ from others? A: The Oresteia is the first real tragic masterpiece. I think that the greatness of a piece of literature depends mainly on how much it lets us reflect on at once, and the Oresteia has everything: questions of human nature, the nature of the gods, the social order-- in this case, the startling Athenian moves toward government by ordinary people. And it's all conveyed in intense, complex, almost creepily…
Tom Morgan, professor of physics; John Wright Ph.D '06; Jack DiSciacca '07 and Jonathan Lambert (who attended Wesleyan 2002-2010) are the co-authors of an article published in The Physical Review A, June 2010. The publication focuses on the first observation of the semi-classical scattering dynamics of a Rydberg electron with its molecular core. The system is molecular hydrogen veiled in a strong electric field.
Matthew Kurtz, associate professor of psychology, associate professor of neuroscience and behavior, is the author of “Treatment approaches with a special focus on neurocognition: overview and empirical results,” published in Understanding and Treating Neuro- and Social-Cognition in Schizophrenia Patients, in 2010 and “Compensatory Strategies; Insight: Effects on Rehabilitation; Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test,” published in Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology, New York: Springer, 2010.
John Seamon, professor of psychology, professor of neuroscience and behavior, is the author of “Memorizing Milton’s Paradise Lost: A study of a septuagenarian exceptional memorizer,” published in Memory, 2010.
Jill Morawski, professor of psychology, professor of science in society, professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, is the author of “The Location of our Debates: Finding, Fixing and Enacting Reality,” published in Theory and Psychology; “Review of Beyond the Box: B.F. Skinner's Technology of Behavior from Laboratory to Life,” published in Isis; and “Postwar Promises and Perplexities in the Social Sciences: The Case of ‘Socialization’,” published in History of Psychology.
Tsampikos Kottos, assistant professor of physics, received a grant worth $116,634 from the Department of the Air Force for a study titled “Ab initio approach to nonlinear dynamics of collective excitations in networks of coupled optical Microresonators.” The grant will be applied through July 2013. The grant is shared with CUNY College.
Eric Charry, associate professor of music, received a $115,117 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, to support a Summer Institute in Ethnomusicology June 20-July 1, 2011 at Wesleyan. The Society of Ethnomusicology will oversee the institute, which will be attended by 22 college instructors and three graduate students. Wesleyan hosted a similar conference in 2008.
Barry Chernoff, chair of the Environmental Studies Program, the Robert Schumann Professor of Environmental Studies; director of the Environmental Studies Certificate Program, professor of biology, received an $800,000 award from The Andrew Mellon Foundation to support the College of the Environment. The grant, awarded on June 25, will support the COE for four years.
Jan Naegele, professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior, received a $100,000 from the National Institute of Mental Health for her research on “Molecular and Cellular Analysis of Brand-Enriched PTPs.” The grant will be awarded through March 2010. This is a renewal of a previous grant, which is subcontracted with Yale University.
Michael Calter, associate professor of chemistry, received a $472,490 grant from the National Institutes of Health for his study titled “Asymmetric C-C Bond-Forming Reactions Catalyzed by Cinchona Alkaloid Derivatives.” The grant will fund this research through July 31, 2013. The project described was supported by Award Number R15GM094764 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
Michael Singer, associate professor of biology, associate professor of environmental studies, received a $10,000 Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation for “The Role of Toxin Complementation in Herbivore Defense.” The award will support graduate student Peri Mason's doctoral dissertation.